Arizona was won by GovernorGeorge W. Bush by a 6.3 point margin of victory. Ralph Nader received 3%, whilst all of the other candidates received a combined 1%. Pre-election polling showed that Bush had a solid lead over Gore.[1] Bush won all the congressional districts, except Arizona's 2nd congressional district. The key for Bush's victory was Maricopa County, which has by far the highest population in the state. After breaking the longest Republican streak in the last election, last voting Democratic in 1948 prior to 1996, Arizona made a return to the Republican column in 2000. Bush made history by winning Greenlee County, the first Republican presidential candidate to ever do so.[2] This thinly populated working class county, which has been dependent on copper mining as the basis for its economy, had previously voted Democratic in every election since Arizona achieved statehood in 1912, but has not done so since.
Bush became the first Republican to win the White House without carrying Coconino or Pima Counties since Arizona statehood, as well as the first to do so without carrying Santa Cruz County since Herbert Hoover in 1928.
